We Have to Save Science! Cure Mercury Leads the Way!
We Have to Save Science! Cure Mercury Leads the Way! is the first episode of Science Pretty Cure. Major events * The debut of Science Pretty Cure. * Ms. Frizzle, her class, her sister Fiona, Liz, and Agent A make their debuts in this episode. * Dorothy Ann transforms into Cure Mercury for the first time. * Cure Mercury uses Aqua Vortex for the first time. Text Cold open "Seatbelts, everyone!" With these words, spoken with her usual flair by Valerie Frizzle, all eight kids gathered at the bus stop got on her bus for another routine day of school at Walkerville Elementary. The bus proceeded at its usual pace on the route to the school, and nothing seemed at all unusual by the standards of the Frizz Kids. "I wonder what this week's field trip's going to be?" asked Wanda Li. "Who knows? It's always a random thing with the Frizz," Tim Jamal replied. "Good grief," groaned Arnold Perlstein. "I understand Ms. Frizzle's the best teacher in the world, but with her, it's always all about field trips, and she's just plain unpredictable!" "And proud of it!" the Frizz said, winking at Arnold. "After all, I just love taking chances, making mistakes, and getting messy--it's the best way to learn about science, after all." "Uh, Ms. Frizzle," Ralphie Tennelli suddenly said as they approached the school, "is it just me, or have we stumbled across an angry mob outside of our school?" Hearing that, the Frizz stopped the bus and noticed a huge mob with torches, pitchforks, and picket signs. For once, she was noticeably fazed. "Now this is new," she said. "And very troubling, indeed." OP (Theme from The Magic School Bus) MS. FRIZZLE (spoken) Class, science itself is in danger. Be it outer space, the human body, the ocean, the environment, the desert, or our own backyard, we've got to fight to save what is dear and precious to not just us, but the human race as a whole! Seatbelts, everyone! Time for us to take chances, make mistakes, and get messy! VOCALIST Cruising on down Main Street, you're relaxed and feeling good Next thing that you know, you're seeing AN OCTOPUS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD? Surfing on a soundwave, swinging through the stars Take a left at your intestine, take your second right past Mars On the Magic School Bus--navigate a nostril Climb on the Magic School Bus--spank a plankton, too WANDA (spoken) Take that! VOCALIST On our Magic School Bus--raft a river of lava On the Magic School Bus--SUCH A FINE THING TO DO! So strap your bones right to your seat Come on in and don't be shy Just to make your day complete YOU MIGHT GET BAKED INTO A PIE On the Magic School Bus Step inside, it's a wild ride! Come on, ride on the Magic School Bus! Act 1 It was an ugly scene. Signs such as "Down with the Frizz!", "Science = Fiction", and "We're Not Getting Any Warmer" littered the mob. This was one of those moments that liquefied Wanda's nerves of steel. "Whatarewegonnadowhatarewegonnadowhatarewegonnado?" she asked in a tone of clear panic. Keesha Franklin was the next to voice her concern about the mob. "Oh bad, oh bad, oh bad, bad, bad, bad!" Arnold groaned, "It's like..." "Maybe you should've stayed home today?" the Frizz queried. "Nonsense! We've just got to lose this crowd and get to our classroom without anyone noticing." With these words, she put her foot down hard on the gas pedal and sped down a clear strip of road before pushing a button, causing the bus and its occupants to shrink down to the size of a mouse. Phoebe Terese, who sat next to Wanda, was horrified as the Frizz doubled back to get in between the feet of those in the angry mob. "At my old school," she complained, "we never shrunk to a few inches in height before facing some big bullies!" "Pheeb's got a point," Dorothy Ann Rourke said. "According to my research, the chances of us getting crushed under a protestor's foot will grow exponentially the longer we have to navigate a crowd of giants!" "Then we'll just have to make like a bullet," the Frizz said, "and pull off some wildly improbable car tricks!" "Don't you mean impossible?" Phoebe asked. "The word impossible is not in my dictionary, Phoebe," the Frizz reassured Phoebe as she maneuvered around the feet of the protestors outside of the school. Some wild swerving caused Ralphie's stomach to churn. "I think I'm gonna be sick," he groaned as the bus's left wheels once more touched the ground hard after a 90-degree wheelie. "I don't know about you, Ralphie," Tim said, "but I'm pretty sure we've been Frizzled!" "Just as exciting as one of our field trips!" Wanda exclaimed. "And just as scary," Arnold reminded her. "Come on, you weaselly wimp," Wanda replied, "I live for excitement!" "I only enjoy excitement," Arnold said, "when I feel I'm at an advantage for it!" "By the way," Phoebe said, "where's Liz?" The Frizz was unconcerned about Liz. "Oh, she just took off before we shrunk," said she. "Probably off to fetch someone who can help us. At any rate, we're safely in front of our classroom." With these words, she restored the bus to its normal size, having positioned the doors to align with the classroom door, and exited the bus directly into the classroom, with her students following closely behind. Once everyone got settled, Dorothy Ann was the first to speak up. "Call me crazy if you will," said she, "but I think some hostile aliens from outer space experimented with broadcast signal intrusion by intercepting someone's ham radio transmitter." Keesha was unimpressed. "OK... let's get the facts. Are you absolutely certain that aliens exist? Because the last alien encounter I heard about was a prank by Ralphie after our trip to the biggest planetarium in the universe." "According to my research," D.A. countered, "communications between the Earth and the Moon are possible at frequencies between 50 MHz and 47 GHz." "That may be," Keesha replied, "but did the Apollo missions ever discover life on the Moon, apart from our astronauts who embarked on those missions in the first place? For all I know, it could be that some local person hacked the ham radio frequency." "Maybe it was Vladimir Putin?" class clown Carlos Ramón suggested. "Because whoever did it must've been rushing to obliterate science!" "CAR-los..." Even the Frizz was dead serious. This was no time to be joking, and everyone in the room knew it. "Tsk! Well, whoever it is that's responsible for riling up that mob," Wanda said defiantly, "I'll be damned if I let 'em stamp out science, especially through intimidation tactics and violence!" No sooner did she finish saying that than a projectile shot through the window, narrowly missing her cranium and landing in front of D.A. "Hey! Not cool!" Wanda suddenly shouted. "I know you hate our guts, but what you just did is considered vandalism, which is considered unacceptable in most societies for any reason! More specifically, you'd be considered guilty of criminal mischief, an act punishable by--!" "It's all right," the Frizz said to get Wanda to calm down. "This is my little sister, Fiona. Liz brought her here, because she's just as sympathetic to the scientific cause as we are." As she opened the window to let Fiona Frizzle and Liz in without causing any more damage, Wanda asked, "What was that thing you threw at us, anyway?" "That," Fiona said, "is key to saving science. I found it in my backyard years ago, but I never really gave it much thought until I saw that angry mob on the news. What kind of angry mob would gather outside of a school to protest the teaching of science? That is most unorthodox, so I did a quick online search for the object, and I discovered it was one of the Eight Solar Amulets." Dorothy Ann picked up the object and studied it closely. It was gold, with a cool gray jewel encrusted in it. In its center was the symbol of the planet Mercury. "What's so special about this?" D.A. asked. "All I see is a planetary symbol inside of a grayish jewel." "As I discovered in my quick search," Fiona said, "this is the Solar Amulet of Mercury." "What's a Solar Amulet?" D.A. asked, still mystified by the seemingly-plain important artifact. Turning to her sister, Fiona asked, "Val, should I go ahead and tell your students about the Eight Solar Amulets?" "In all my years of teaching science," the Frizz replied, "I've never even heard of these Eight Solar Amulets, so you might as well." Fiona sighed, pulled out her laptop, and said, "OK, sit down, everyone. This is going to be deep." Act 2 "Long ago, so it's been said, the Sun shot eight hot rocks in the cardinal and ordinal directions. They just so happened to land perfectly on each of the eight planets of the Solar System. Eventually, they all ended up on Earth, and somehow they landed in different parts of Walkerville." "But how?" Keesha asked. "How could they all end up here after visiting the other seven planets?" "You might not believe it," Fiona said, "but aliens do exist. I believe the one that came from the planet Mercury was brought here by a UFO that used technology similar to the bus Val and I built years ago. Maybe the driver and his friends were trying to protect the Amulets from a hostile race of extraterrestrials?" "So I was right!" Dorothy Ann exclaimed. "Aliens do exist!" "Pah!" Keesha exclaimed. "I still think they're a figment of our imagination, just like the men in black." "What if I told you," the Frizz cut in, "that I met the men in black while we were building the bus?" "Say what?" "It's true," Fiona said. "They came in asking about some contraband extraterrestrium that fell into the neighborhood. I got them off our backs by lying that we'd thrown it away." "It was true," the Frizz added, "that we didn't know what extraterrestrium was at the time it landed behind our backyard." "And now you know," a strange voice said. D.A. glared at Ralphie and said, "Bat." Phoebe asked, "Who said that?" One of the men in black the Frizzles had encountered was inside the school. "Call me Agent A," said he. "And now that you know about extraterrestrium, kindly hand over the bus." "Like bloody hell we will!" D.A. exclaimed, now brandishing a baseball bat. "Do it," Agent A snarled, pointing his disintegrator at Arnold, "or Four-Eyes here gets it!" Gulping, Arnold said, "I knew I shoulda stayed home today..." "You want to threaten one of my classmates," D.A. said, glaring at Agent A, "you're gonna have to get past me first!" Charging at Agent A, D.A. swung at him and hit him, but he didn't seem fazed. Annoyed, D.A. tossed the bat aside in Ms. Frizzle's direction, and she felt it. Shocked, D.A. said, "Sorry about that, Ms. Frizzle." "It's all right, Dorothy Ann," the Frizz said as she got back on her feet. "Now you know for sure I'm not of Agent A's species." The Frizz then swung at Fiona. "OW! What was that for, Val?" "Just to be on the safe side, Fiona," the Frizz said. "With an alien that resembles a human being, I just couldn't take any chances." "Isn't there a less violent way to make sure none of us here are of this guy's species?" Phoebe asked. "We'll worry about that later," D.A. said. "Right now, I gotta find out how this amulet works, so I can figure out if this Agent A character is behind that angry mob!" Glancing at her laptop, Fiona said, "It says here that whoever's worthy to use the Eight Solar Amulets shall activate theirs by holding on tight to it and saying, 'Solar Energy Ignite!'" D.A. understood immediately what to do. The Mercury Solar Amulet clutched tightly in her hand, she shouted, "SOLAR ENERGY IGNITE!" All of a sudden, a light enveloped D.A. before everyone's eyes. When the light dissipated a minute later, she still looked like D.A., but at the same time, she looked different--and she was dressed different, too! "The water star from up north, I am Cure Mercury!" Almost immediately, D.A. freaked out. "Blimey! What happened to me? Why do I look different? Even my hair is a different colour! And why am I suddenly wearing a tiny skirt that, according to my research, goes against the dress code?" Fiona observed D.A.'s visible reaction and her subconscious role in costume design. "Subject appears a bit disoriented," said she. "Not to mention freaked out by the outfit her subconscious chose for her. Influenced greatly by Sailor Moon characters Serena Tsukino and Amy Mizuno, complete with a tinier skirt that would get her in-school suspension at a minimum under any other circumstance. Amy's favorite color rather noticeable at spots, but mostly silver, like both her planetary and elemental namesake." "Uh, D.A.," Keesha said, "I don't believe my eyes at this very moment. You'll want to have a look in your satchel." D.A. walked over to her satchel and pulled out something that looked less like a book and more like a tablet. "Go ahead, D.A.," Fiona said. "Activate your visor." D.A. pushed a button just behind her right ear, and a see-through visor retracted itself in front of her eyes. All of a sudden, there appeared text that she couldn't see before. "Amazing!" she exclaimed. "I guess becoming a magical girl like my favourite superheroes does have its advantages." D.A. deactivated and reactivated her visor several times to make sure the invisible ink-like text being displayed on the tablet was really there. "As you can see," Fiona continued, "the visor allows you to see things on your tablet. It's extremely confidential, and so comes with an extra layer of protection to ensure that what the tablet displays really is for your eyes only." Agent A took his disintegrator off of Arnold and aimed it at D.A. "I'll just have to make sure those eyes will never see another thing," he snarled before firing it. The disintegration beam simply deflected off the visor, forcing him to hastily recollect the energy into the disintegrator. "What the hell!?" he exclaimed. "That wasn't supposed to happen!" Fiona told D.A., "The visor also acts as a sort of shield. Not even the most basic advanced weaponry from the outer reaches of the universe can get through that. It'd take nothing less than the Great Red Spot of Jupiter to crack it." As D.A. picked up the bat, Agent A said, "I'll just have to aim elsewhere, then." SLAM! This time, D.A.'s enhanced strength allowed her to do some real damage with the bat. "It's all well and good that you're stronger in this form," Fiona pointed out, "but isn't there something more flashy you could do?" "Like some kind of Bubble Blast?" "Sort of," Fiona said. Aiming both of her index fingers at Agent A, D.A. yelled, "HIGH PRESSURE WATER! FIRE EXTINGUISHER! HORIZONTAL RAIN! ...Purple Rain? Why isn't any of them working?" "Maybe you're overthinking things?" Fiona suggested. "Let your subconscious give you an idea. Maybe that'll work." "All right... here goes..." D.A. closed her eyes, waiting for an idea to form for what she could do to send that alien creep running back to the Moon with his tail between his legs. Then, an idea came. "PRETTY CURE! AQUA VORTEX!" At that moment, water shot out from her index fingers and formed a whirlpool around Agent A, lifting him off the ground to deposit him back to the Moon. After she and the other Frizz Kids waved him off, D.A. returned to her regular form. "I feel more comfortable in this skirt than that one," she said, "plus I didn't want to run the risk of Mr. Ruhle seeing me like that, for obvious reasons. But, I guess, beggars can't be choosers." "Now that Agent A's out of our hair for now," Fiona said, "there's seven Solar Amulets left for us to find: Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune." "And they say three is a magic number," Tim said. "I guess there's one they forgot about." "Yeah," Carlos said. "Seven!" Wanda pointed out, "Carlos would be a perfect match with the Solar Amulet of Uranus!" "You got me there, Wanda," Carlos admitted. "As I always say, class," the Frizz said, "there's humor in every situation, even in our bones!" Producer Segment The following is a transcript of a call taken by Malcolm the Producer at the end of the episode. MALCOLM Hello, Magic School Bus, the Producer speaking. ED (Dream On) Trivia